8/10
From Laika Studios (creators of films such as Coraline and ParaNorman) comes yet another dark and delightfully quirky film, The Boxtrolls. Based on Alan Snow’s book, Here Be Monsters!, this movie takes place in an old English village, where Boxtrolls are believed to be man-eating, baby-stealing menaces to society. In truth, they are kind, lovable creatures who simply wish to live in harmony with the humans. Living amongst these box-wearing creatures is a human boy by the name of Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright) who was saved as a baby by a Boxtroll and raised to believe that he is one of them. Regardless of their peaceful nature, however, the humans want the Boxtrolls gone, and leading the extermination of their kind is the wicked Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), a disgusting, if rather humourous, man who has an agenda of his own. It’s up to Eggs, his family of Boxtrolls, and his new-found, fiery spitfire of a friend, Winnie (Elle Fanning) to put a stop to Snatcher’s nefarious plans and to prove wrong the humans’ assumptions of Boxtrolls once and for all.